C’mon Baby, Light My Firefly…

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A couple of years ago, (or three) I watched the movie “Serenity”. For a variety of reasons, it instantly became one of my favorite movies. Shortly afterward, I discovered that it had been based on the Sci-Fi Channel (I think) series by the name of “Firefly”. It was cancelled after only one season for reasons I can not fathom. I mean it! There’s no good reason for it to be cancelled.

I’ve been a fan of several sci-fi series and movies like all of the Star Trek movies and series, Star Wars movies, Stargate movies and series, and others I can’t think of right now. But Firefly (and Serenity) have something that lacks in the rest. I’m not sure if I can say exactly what it is, but it’s probably a mixture of several great qualities. The cast is great, the writing is fresh and packed with humor, and the story lines are imaginative and exciting. I also think it gives a much more realistic portrayal of what life would be like if the human race ever got scattered throughout the galaxy than other space-based television series do.

But for some reason, it didn’t make it past the first season. I got re-interested in it a few weeks ago, when I saw that it was on sale at Fry’s for a mere $20. I watched a few episodes over the last several days and got it firmly entrenched in my head again. So that’s why I decided to blog about it tonight…

I pulled this snippet off of Wikipedia:

Cult status

In 2005, New Scientist magazine’s website held an internet poll to find “The World’s Best Space Sci-Fi Ever”. Firefly came in first place, with its cinematic follow-up Serenity in second.[54] Also, as of May 2007, it is the highest rated science fiction show of all time according to an online poll conducted by tv.com.[55]

On May 9, 2006, the Firefly episodes were added to the iTunes Music Store for download as part of FOX Television Classics along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost in Space. The episodes were initially listed in the order FOX originally aired them, but due to comments from fans in the Store, the episodes were listed in the order in which Whedon originally intended.

Brad Wright, co-creator of Stargate SG-1 has said that “200″, the 200th episode of SG-1, is “A little kiss to Serenity and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best cancelled series in history.” In the episode, “Martin Lloyd has come to the S.G.C. because even though “Wormhole X-Treme!” was cancelled after three episodes, it did so well on DVD they’re making a feature [film].”[56]

The follow-up film, Serenity, was voted the best science fiction movie of all time in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.

IMDB also has some interesting stuff to say about it: http://imdb.com/title/tt0303461/

Just thought I’d share Firefly with you because I think it’s one of the good things that shouldn’t be missed. I hope you’ll take some time to enjoy it too…

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Filed under Movies, Sci-Fi, Television

Tags: Firefly, Sci-Fi, Serenity